Military assets such as aircraft, for example, are often stationed at forward deployed bases. Many such forward deployed bases are austere and remotely located airfields with insufficient lighting and security systems. Accordingly, it is often desirable to transport lighting systems to the forward deployed bases. Conventional lighting systems may be very heavy and difficult to transport to remote locations. The generally require too much energy and are not equipped to provide a defined boundary between an illuminated “watch area” and a non-illuminated “secure area”, where the presence of light would only highlight the object that is to be secured.
Conventional lighting systems often employ halogen, fluorescent, or incandescent lighting, which introduce numerous disadvantages into security applications. Incandescent lighting consumes relatively large amounts of energy and requires frequency replacement of lighting elements. Halogen lighting also consumes relatively large amounts of energy and has a high thermal load, which can be a disadvantage in environments where covertness is desired. Finally, fluorescent lighting produces relatively large amounts of electromagnetic interference and generally includes mercury, which is a pollutant that has high disposal costs.
It would be desirable then to produce a mobile, light-weight, lighting system that is adapted to illuminate a selected area while consuming a relatively reduced amount of energy as compared to halogen, fluorescent, or incandescent light sources. It would be further desirable to produce a lighting system that is adapted to define a formal boundary between an illuminated and a non-illuminated area.